Yearly Archives: 2010

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted to remove Darvocet, Darvon and other drugs containing the active ingredient propoxyphene from the market due to a risk of users developing dangerous abnormal heart rhythms. Pharmacies and health care professionals have been notified by the FDA to no longer carry or prescribe the medication. But if you use or have used propoxyphene, there are some things you need to be aware of. First, if you have used propoxyphene on a regular basis for more than a few weeks, you should contact your doctor about weaning off propoxyphene and switching to another ... Read More

A young woman named Mandi sends a brief text message to her sister Ashley, who is driving her truck. Ashley receives the message — “yeah” — then clips the median on the left side and loses control of the vehicle. Her truck flips and she is ejected from the driver’s seat. She dies in the ditch where her body lands and now Mandi lives with the guilt of believing she killed her sibling with those four “little letters.” “Just having a highway patrol officer write in a report that a text message sent at 12:05 is the reason that she ... Read More

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals is a leader in the development and manufacturing of medications worldwide, but not all of its drugs appear to have the consumer’s best interest in mind. Consider the company’s lineup of birth control pills. All “four sisters” have one thing in common – a bad reputation. They put women at risk for serious and life threatening health problems. Let’s take a closer look at these “four sisters” of Bayer oral contraceptives: Yaz is a combination birth control pill containing the hormones drospirenone (3 mg) and ethinyl estradiol (20 mcg). Drospirenone also works as a diuretic. It was ... Read More

It sounds almost too crazy to believe. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) puts new drugs through rigorous clinical trials before approving them, but when it comes to new medical devices, ones implanted inside the body through invasive surgery, the standards are far more lax. Implants, such as artificial hips, can be sold without first going through trials. In fact, device makers can bundle components from an unapproved implant into an existing one and sell a device with very little testing, leaving unsuspecting patients to serve as guinea pigs. “You are basically testing these devices in an uncontrolled way on ... Read More

King Pharmaceuticals Inc., in partnership with Pain Therapeutics Inc., has resubmitted its application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its painkiller Remoxy, touted by the manufacturer as being an abuse-resistant version of OxyContin. The FDA had previously delayed approval of the drug until it had more proof that Remoxy is less addictive. Remoxy is a treatment for moderate to severe chronic pain and is intended to meet the needs of physicians who prescribe opioid painkillers and want to minimize risks of drug diversion, abuse or accidental patient misuse. The drug is used to treat pain by slowly releasing ... Read More

In a study on dogs conducted by researchers at Lilly, the company that discovered the now-banned prescription painkiller propoxyphene, researchers determined that “cardiac conduction depression may be a factor in some of the (human) cardiac toxicities associated with propoxyphene overdose.” That study was held more than 30 ago. In 2009, researchers used the same kind of function measure for the human study that led to the banning last month of propoxyphene, known by the brand names Darvon and Darvocet. Why would the FDA take so long to pull propoxyphene-containing products from the market if data from three decades ago proved ... Read More

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s latest Hours-of-Service revisions, which the agency hopes will drive down the numbers of fatigue-related commercial truck and bus crashes, have been criticized by industry professionals and safety advocates alike. Speaking for most commercial carriers, the American Trucking Association says the proposed HOS changes are “overly complex, chock full of unnecessary restrictions on professional truck drivers, and, at [their] core, would substantially reduce trucking’s productivity.” The national safety advocate Public Citizen took the opposite stance, saying that while the new rules are better for public safety than those adopted by the Bush Administration, they don’t ... Read More

On October 8, 2010, 21-year-old Emilie Gossiaux’s life changed in an instant. A painter and sculptor whose life was filled with light and color, Ms. Gossiaux’s world plunged into darkness and silence after she was struck by an 18-wheel semi truck while riding her bike near her home in Brooklyn, New York. The truck had been attempting a right turn when it collided with Ms. Gossiaux. The damage was extensive and doctors at the Manhattan hospital where she was taken didn’t pin too much hope on her recovery. Ms. Gossiaux suffered from multiple fractures to her head, pelvis, and leg. ... Read More

At least 2,000 people or more may have needlessly died because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not act fast enough to remove the popular painkillers Darvon and Darvocet, and their equivalent generics, from the market, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen. Sidney Wolfe, director of the group’s health research group, said in a press release that Public Citizen will call for a congressional investigation into who at the FDA “was responsible for the loss of so many lives in this country.” The FDA last month withdrew drugs containing propoxyphene, such as Darvon and Darvocet, because studies showed ... Read More

Toyota quietly agreed to pay $10 million on December 23 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Mark Saylor, the California Highway Patrol officer who was killed in a horrifying crash along with his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law, in August of last year. The crash occurred moments after Mr. Saylor called 911 from the vehicle and reported that the 2009 Lexus ES350 loaner car he was driving was accelerating out of control and had no brakes. Mr. Saylor was on the phone when the car careened off of the San Diego highway and exploded, killing all aboard. The ... Read More